Learning to Love Once More
by hinatasgreatestfan
Summary: Naruto casts an experimental jutsu, but things go haywire in ways no one could have anticipated. How will he cope? Post-war. Canon compliant.
1. A New Old Arrival

Chapter 1

Naruto took a deep breath and gathered his chakra. He had spent the last three years working on this jutsu with Ino and her clan, as well as some of the members of the interrogation division. This jutsu, if it worked how they thought it would, would completely mitigate any need for interrogation, torture, any of that, by simply allowing them to transfer memories between two people, either showing another person one's own memories or reading another person's memories. It wasn't quite as efficient as the Mind Transfer Jutsu, but it also had the potential to be far less damaging on a person's psyche than their current methods of reading a person's mind.

Naruto had about a thousand thoughts in his mind. He had been working on this jutsu for so long, and he still wasn't entirely sure if it would even work. Ino had been extremely hesitant to even allow it to be tested without developing it further. Still, Naruto had told her, and he truly believed it, that without testing it to see what it even _did_ at the current stage, they couldn't work out any more kinks. After all, without seeing what the kinks _were,_ they couldn't know what to fix.

All the same, it was all Naruto could do to not let his nerves get the best of him. After all, he was about to cast a jutsu without really knowing for sure exactly what it would do. As Hokage, he knew he couldn't allow anyone else to do this, but he also was kind of scared to actually do it. To help enhance its potency, Naruto was gathering Sage chakra as well. Once he felt sure he had enough chakra, both Sage and his own, he took a deep breath, ran through the relatively short sequence of hand signs they had developed for the jutsu, took yet _another_ deep breath, and channeled his chakra. "Memory Transfer Jutsu," he said. Nothing seemed to happen.

Shrugging, Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, at least nothing really went wrong," he said to himself. "We can figure out later why it didn't work." Returning his attention to the never-ending paperwork, he soon was finished for the day.

Upon returning home, Naruto was greeted by Hinata. "Hello, Naruto," she said softly with a happy smile. "How did your day go?"

Naruto chuckled. "I tried to cast that memory jutsu the Yamanakas have been helping me with lately, but it didn't really seem to do anything," he said, rubbing the back of his head. Hinata giggled. Naruto smiled. "At least it didn't hurt anything," he said after a moment. "It is a bit disappointing that it didn't work, though." As he was talking, Naruto busied himself making some instant ramen and sat at the table to eat.

Hinata rested a comforting hand on Naruto's shoulder. "I know you've been working on that jutsu for a long time," she said in her soft voice. "I'm sure it's frustrating to have it not work, but I'm sure you'll figure out what went wrong."

Naruto smiled and rested a hand on Hinata's. "Yeah, you're right," he said with a slightly sheepish look. "The Yamanakas are awesome, after all. I'm sure they can figure out what's wrong with it."

Hinata smiled at Naruto's slight self-deprecation. "And I'm sure you'll be totally useless in figuring it out," she said teasingly. Naruto smiled up at her through a mouthful of ramen, knowing she was just messing with him. Hinata giggled. "Really, though, you're the Hokage for a reason, Naruto, I'm sure you'll be as much help in figuring out what went wrong as anyone."

Naruto laughed in between bites. "I hope so. It doesn't matter who figures it out, I just hope we can get that blasted jutsu to work. It would be a big help in interrogating people. I mean, it's damn near impossible to know if someone is lying unless you can read their mind."

Hinata giggled. "Not like we have too much trouble with criminals anymore," she said. Naruto grinned, knowing full well that was basically because of him. Hinata smiled back, then added, "And if we do, we can always let the interrogation division read their minds."

"Yeah, we can," Naruto said, then added, "but I can only imagine what that would do to someone, having some guy rifling through your memories like that." He shivered. "That's the whole point of this jutsu, we want to be able to see into a person's mind without screwing them up at all."

Hinata giggled. "So, what you're saying is, this jutsu is being made strictly to spare people who have done bad stuff from mental suffering," she said. "That is so like you, Naruto."

Naruto chuckled. "I guess it is. Maybe I'm just too soft," he said back. Hinata shook her head at this. "I know you don't think so, but sometimes I wonder if things wouldn't have been better if I hadn't gone so easy on some of the Akatsuki and what not."

Hinata just smiled. "You wouldn't be you if you didn't do things like that, though," she said with a smile. "And I wouldn't have you any other way," she added.

Naruto smiled at this. "Are the kids in bed already?" he asked. Hinata nodded. "We should probably get to bed soon, too. We have busy days ahead of us tomorrow."

Hinata smiled and rubbed his back a bit. "I was just waiting up for you to get home. I'm exhausted, and I'm going to go ahead and head to bed, actually."

Naruto smiled and stood up. He gave Hinata a big hug and a small, chaste kiss, then patted her back as she headed to bed. "I'll be in soon," he said with a smile. Hinata gave him a playful wave as she went into their bedroom.

Naruto finished up with his ramen, washed up, and went to bed himself. Little did he know how much things were going to change the next day.

The Next Morning

Upon awaking, Naruto found himself in an unfamiliar place. The room he was in was way too big to be his room. He felt like the bed he was in was...too big, and yet not, for him. It took him a moment to realize something else wasn't right. He wasn't alone. There was an arm around his waist, and a warm body was pressed up against his back. He could feel _every single inch_ of that body, especially... _certain assets._

He took a moment, trying to figure out what in the world was going on and breathing deeply to keep from panicking, then he tried to sit up. The arm around his waist moved up and pulled him more tightly to...whoever was back there. He did notice, however, that he seemed to have gained at least a full foot overnight. He also felt...stronger than he remembered feeling. His muscles were way more toned, and his chakra...it felt like he had almost twice as much as he had _ever_ had before.

As he was taking stock of this, a voice practically _moaned_ into his ear, "Don't get up yet, Naruto. Let's stay in bed a bit longer."

That voice was familiar to him, but his half-awake mind couldn't even _begin_ to process how he knew it, never mind whose voice it was. The only thing he could focus on was that that voice was _clearly_ a female voice. If his mind hadn't already been on the fritz, he would likely have realized it was Hinata's voice he had heard.

Naruto carefully extracted himself from the arm, trying to not awaken the person behind him. He managed it, only eliciting an occasional moan or grumble from the person holding him. Once he had slipped out of the arm, Naruto stood up and bolted to the bathroom he saw on the other side of the room. Staring in the mirror, Naruto couldn't deny that something was very, _very_ wrong. He looked at _least_ ten years older than he remembered being the day before. But how was that possible?! He didn't look...old, really, probably in his early to mid twenties, but the last thing he could remember was being _twelve!_

If Naruto hadn't already been in shock from discovering his...sudden aging, he would have gone into shock when he heard a small voice in the room he had just vacated. "Mommy, Daddy?" the voice said. Naruto turned and saw possibly the most adorable little girl he had ever laid eyes on. Her hair was the same color as Hinata's and in a similar cut, but with a single strand going straight up. Her eyes were blue, like his, and she had the same whisker marks Naruto himself did on her cheeks, only she had two on each side rather than three.

The little girl turned to where Naruto was and grinned. "Daddy!" she squealed and ran to him. It was all Naruto could do to catch the girl when she launched herself at him. He picked her up and stepped out of the bathroom. Hinata was sitting up in the bed now, and Naruto got his first look at her. He knew instantly it was Hinata, but she too was much older than he remembered. Her hair, which he remembered being short, was now more than halfway down her back. Her light eyes were trained on him and this little girl.

"Well, so much for staying in bed," she said with a smile. "Himawari, can't you ever let your parents sleep in, just once?" Hinata's voice sounded stern, but she was smiling, so Naruto figured she was just teasing the kid, whose name he now knew to be Himawari.

Himawari smiled at her mother. "I woke up, and I wanted to see Mommy and Daddy," she said. Her voice and her innocent, very young child logic, were both so adorable Naruto felt himself melting. He had only just met this kid, and he already would have put his life on the line to protect her.

Hinata was also smiling affectionately at the kid. Naruto sensed that she would also do anything to protect...their daughter, he figured.

Had Naruto been alone, or had this little girl not burst in when she did, he likely would have been having a meltdown for the last three minutes. Because of the presence of both Hinata and Himawari, though, he hadn't had time to really think and had just been acting for the last few minutes. Now, however, there was a moment of peace.

Naruto set the girl on the bed, backed up a bit, and looked around. Everything he was dealing with finally caught up with his still-sleep-addled brain, and he started to freak out. He would have run, but he had no idea where he would run _to,_ exactly, so he just stood there, panting heavily. At that moment, yet another surprise was laid on Naruto's already taxed brain. A boy who looked just a _little_ too much like Naruto himself walked into the bedroom. "Oh, Boruto, you're up too," Hinata said. The boy nodded. He looked to be about ten, just a bit younger than Naruto thought he himself should be. "Could you take your sister down to the kitchen so your father and I can get ready, please?" Hinata asked.

Boruto nodded and held out a hand for Himawari. The girl hesitated for a moment, then went to her brother, and the two left the bedroom.

Hinata looked at Naruto. "Okay, you," she said after a moment. "I can see you're freaking out. What's going on?"

Naruto took a deep breath. He wasn't used to someone reading him like that. "That's what I want to know!" he said. He noticed in a corner of his mind that his voice was much deeper than he remembered, but that was just one thing in a thousand right now, so it almost didn't faze him.

Hinata raised an eyebrow. "I mean why are you freaking out, Naruto?" she asked.

Naruto took another deep breath, trying desperately to stay calm. "I went to bed last night, alone, age twelve, and I wake up today here, with you and those two kids, seemingly much older, and I have no idea why!" he said, his voice cracking a bit toward the end.

Hinata gasped. "You...don't remember anything?" she asked. Naruto shook his head. Hinata took a moment to think, then said, "The memory jutsu!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow at this. "What memory jutsu?" he asked after a moment when Hinata wasn't forthcoming with any more details.

Hinata sighed. "You've been working on a memory jutsu with the Yamanaka Clan for the past three years, give or take. You tried casting it yesterday, but you said it didn't work. I'm guessing this is the results of that," she said.

Naruto took that in, then asked, "Why would the Yamanaka Clan be working with me on a new jutsu?" He wasn't upset about it, but he was more than a little confused why a clan like them would rely on a relative nobody like him.

Hinata smiled, then responded with a rhetorical question of her own. "Who else would they work with but the Hokage?"

Naruto took in _that_ bombshell. "I'm the Hokage?!" he _almost_ shrieked out. "Since when?"

Hinata paused a moment, then answered, "You've been Hokage for six years now, I guess. Himawari was three when you were inaugurated, and she's nine now, so yeah, six years."

"Wait...I have a nine-year-old kid?" Naruto asked. "Wait...how old am I?"

Hinata giggled. She couldn't help it. Naruto was just too adorable when he was freaking out like this. "We're 30, Naruto," she said back. "You really don't remember anything from the last 18 years?" She was doing her best to remain calm, but internally, she was panicking. Her husband, the Hokage, didn't remember anything about their relationship, their kids, the war they had fought together, nothing? This was possibly the worst thing to ever happen.

Naruto sighed. "I guess I don't. The last thing I remember is...the Chunin Exams, and fighting Gaara," he said after a moment. When Naruto had first awoken, he had thought he was having some kind of hallucination brought on by chakra exhaustion, but now he was far too much awake to believe that anymore. Something had definitely gone wrong, and Hinata's comment about a memory jutsu seemed to fit. Given his last memories, something suddenly occurred to Naruto. "Is Sakura okay?" he asked.

Hinata, not knowing what he meant, responded with the only thing she could say. "She's fine. She and Sasuke are married with a daughter."

Naruto processed that and breathed a sigh of relief. "Then Gaara didn't kill them. Good," he said.

Hinata giggled. "Gaara's Kazekage now, by the way," she said with a mischievous glint in her eye.

Naruto had been shocked one time too many in the past five minutes. His mind simply couldn't take _that_ one. It was just too much. He was never prone to this, but his mind was just so overloaded, Naruto could only do one thing. He fainted. Hinata caught him before he hit the floor and maneuvered him back to the bed, laying him down where he had been sleeping so recently.

Hinata giggled, then breathed a small sigh of relief. "I shouldn't be, but I'm kind of glad he fainted," she said to herself. "I couldn't take explaining anymore to him right now." Taking a breath, she braced herself, then said, "Okay, Hinata, now what are you going to do about this mess?"

A/N: Yeah, yeah, I know, I haven't even updated all my old stories, and here I am starting a new one. This plot bunny came out of nowhere and just wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it. I hope you guys like the idea. This will focus a lot on Hinata and Naruto rebuilding their relationship and not much on politics or anything like that. Also, Naruto and the kids will be a bit of a focus, too, seeing as he can't really perform the duties of a Kage in his current state. Like I said, hope you guys like it, and I'll try to update it again here soon.


	2. Hinata Assumes Control

Chapter 2

By the time Naruto came around, Hinata had managed to accomplish two very important things. First, she had gathered everyone who might be able to help them with this mess, namely Tsunade, Kakashi, Ino, and Sakura. Sakura was mostly there for emotional support, both for Hinata and Naruto. Second, she had gotten Boruto and Himawari out of the house. Himawari was in class, and Boruto had left on a mission. Boruto, being actually twelve despite Naruto's first impression of him, had recently become a Genin, and his sensei, Konohamaru, had decided his team was ready for a C-rank mission, so they were likely to be out of the village for a week or so.

When Naruto awoke, he stumbled out of his bedroom and found this group sitting in the living room. Blinking in slight confusion, he was able to piece together who Sakura was from his experience with recognizing Hinata, and Kakashi hadn't changed much, but the other two...it took him a moment to realize the blonde was Ino, but the fourth new face was _completely_ new to him. "Hey, Kakashi-sensei," he said first. Then, turning to Hinata, he asked, "Who's the old lady?"

Tsunade glared at Naruto for this, her fists clenching without her realizing it. Then it sank in to her that her surrogate grandson _didn't know her._ Her fists relaxed, and she had to fight back tears as Hinata answered, "She's Lady Tsunade. She was the Fifth Hokage until she stepped down and let Kakashi take over for her."

Naruto stared at the two mentioned shinobi, his jaw hanging open. Kakashi just eye-smiled at his former student. Tsunade, however, spoke after a moment. "You mean to tell me, you don't remember me at all?" she asked. Naruto shook his head. "That's very interesting. Hinata tells us you tried to cast a jutsu last night, and when you woke up, you were like this."

Naruto shrugged. "The last thing I remember is fighting Gaara. When I first woke up, I thought I was having some weird hallucination from chakra exhaustion or something, but...well, I can't imagine all _this_ would come from that."

Tsunade came over to Naruto. His comment about chakra exhaustion made some amount of sense. If his new jutsu was even a tenth as chakra-intensive as she suspected it might be, he actually could have had some amount of chakra exhaustion. She didn't think he was hallucinating, of course, but still, it was worth checking. Putting out her hands, they were enveloped in a green glow. Naruto fidgeted, but he knew from times he'd been in the hospital as a kid that she was doing a diagnostic on him, so he sat still.

Tsunade nodded after a moment, then said, "Well, you're not totally wrong, Naruto. You are suffering from a mild case of chakra exhaustion. I've never heard of that causing hallucinations, though. And even if it did, I doubt this case would do it. This is one of the most mild cases I've ever seen."

Naruto sighed. "Then...what the heck is wrong with me?" he asked. "I went to bed a twelve-year-old kid, and I woke up to find that I _have_ kids myself, one of whom looked to be about ten! If this isn't a hallucination, what the heck is it?" His voice was full of frustration and no small amount of fear.

Ino spoke up at this. "Well, Naruto," she began. "It would seem you tried to cast a memory jutsu my clan and I have been helping you with. Apparently, something was wrong with it or it backfired or something, and your memory has been erased." Ino was never one to sugarcoat things.

Sakura glared. "You didn't have to put it that way!" she said. Ino shrugged. "Oh, well, I guess he was going to figure it out sooner or later." Sakura sighed and waited for what she figured was an inevitable explosion.

To Sakura's surprise, Naruto simply sat down on the couch. Hard. The look on his face told everyone he was simply...lost. His heavily overtaxed brain simply couldn't take all this. No one knew what to say or do for a moment. Tsunade was the first to regain some amount of composure. "Well, what are we going to do about it?" she asked.

Hinata sighed. "That's why I got all of you here. I wasn't sure what to do."

Kakashi spoke up then. "I will re-assume the duties of Hokage until this is straightened out. No offense, Naruto, but in your state, you simply can't do them." Naruto nodded. He was in such a state of shock, he would have agreed to damn near anything just then.

Next, Tsunade spoke up. "We should see if we can talk to Kurama," she said. Everyone looked at her in confusion and worry. "We don't know if this has affected him or not, and if it hasn't, he might be able to help," Tsunade explained.

It took everyone a moment to process this, but they all agreed after a moment that this was very true. Then Naruto spoke up, having been newly confused at this statement. "Who's Kurama?" he asked.

Everyone stiffened at this for a moment, then relaxed, realizing Naruto just didn't remember the fox's name. It was Hinata who eventually answered. "The nine-tailed fox, Naruto," she said gently. "His name is Kurama. You two...well, you became friends a while back, and you learned his name is Kurama."

Naruto gasped at this. It was all he could do to not faint. "How in the hell could I be friends with that freaking fox?!" he blurted out after a minute. "Everything I've been through is his fault! I don't...I can't..." he trailed off, unable to say more.

Hinata rested a hand on his shoulder. "Trust me, Naruto, it happened. The fox has changed. And...that's why we need to know if he's been affected by this memory business. Tsunade's right about that," she told him. "If you can, try to go into your mind and talk to the fox. See if he'll come out and talk to us."

Naruto thought about this a moment, then reluctantly nodded. He closed his eyes for a moment, and when they reopened, they had turned to the red eyes of the fox. The fox gave a toothy grin and said, "Well, it's about freaking time. I've been waiting for him to give me a chance to come out here since this morning."

Tsunade nodded. "So, what's going on in there, Kurama?"

Kurama sighed. "I'm not really sure. I saw him cast that jutsu last night, and ever since, he's been...weird. I noticed right away that his memories were...draining off somewhere, I guess. I'm not sure where they went, but by this morning, the last eighteen years were gone."

Kakashi spoke up at this. "And you remember everything, clearly," he said.

"Yes, I do," Kurama responded. "I was honestly worried at first that he would forget literally everything, but it seems to have stopped for now. I hope it stays that way."

Ino nodded and spoke again. "Is there still a drain going on?" she asked.

Kurama shook his head. "It doesn't seem like it. I think it's stopped. Hopefully it won't get any worse now," he said.

Everyone breathed a small sigh of relief at this. Then Kakashi said, "I should get going. I have...duties to take care of, apparently." With that said, he vanished in a cloud of smoke.

Tsunade sighed. "I guess that's the best thing he can be doing. He wasn't much help here, anyway," she said. Everyone else nodded agreement to that. Turning to Naruto/Kurama, she asked, "Can you sense anything else about this? Maybe where his memories went or if they're still out there somewhere or anything?"

Kurama shrugged. "I wish I could, but no. If his memories are still...in existence, I have no idea where or how to get them back. I worry that he might never regain them."

Hinata gasped at this, then shook her head. "No," she said. "I refuse to believe that. We will find a way to reverse this. I swear it."

Ino smiled at Hinata's determination, and Sakura rested a hand on the dark-haired girl's shoulder. "Yes," Sakura said. "We will find a way. With all of us here working on this, no jutsu will get in our way." Hinata smiled at Sakura gratefully.

Tsunade smiled at her apprentice. Turning her attention to Hinata, she said, "Yes, we'll figure this out. I agree." Turning back to Kurama, she added, "You can let Naruto back out now. Thank you, Kurama."

Kurama nodded, then closed his eyes, and when they reopened, they were back to their normal blue. Naruto's face was full of shock. "You were right. He has changed," the blond said. "What in the world happened to him?"

Everyone laughed at this. Naruto was about to burst out in frustration that he hadn't said anything funny when Hinata responded, "You, Naruto. You happened to him." Naruto had to chuckle as well, realizing the irony of his question, if that was indeed the answer.

Tsunade sighed. "Well, a minor case of chakra exhaustion aside, you're physically fine, Naruto. So...I guess you can do whatever you want for today. I'll come around again later this week to check on you." That said, she followed Kakashi's example and vanished. This left just Naruto, Hinata, Sakura, and Ino in the living room.

After a moment, Sakura spoke up. "What are you two going to do today, then?" she asked.

Hinata sighed. "I'm not sure yet," she said. "We'll figure it out. Thanks for coming, you two."

Ino gave Hinata a brief hug. "I know the hand signs we had been working on," she said. "I'll start there, and see if I can figure anything out. I'll let you know if I find anything." Hinata nodded, and Ino left, though she went through the door rather than simply vanishing in smoke.

Sakura forced a smile for Hinata's sake. She was worried, but she knew Hinata didn't need any more stress just now. "We'll get to the bottom of this, Hinata. You'll see. Give us a week, and Naruto will be back to his normal, annoying self before you know it," she said. Hinata hugged her, and then Sakura also left, promising to check up on them whenever she got a chance.

Alone now, Naruto turned to Hinata. "How are you taking all of this so well?" he asked. Turning to him, Hinata raised a questioning eyebrow. Naruto continued, "If someone I loved suddenly didn't know me, I would be freaking the heck out. But here you are, just getting stuff done like it's something that happens every day. I don't get it, that's all."

Hinata took a deep breath and flopped onto the couch rather hard. "Trust me, Naruto, I'm plenty freaked out," she said, her voice full of exhaustion. "I just had to put that aside and try to get something done or I would have broken down."

Naruto took that all in. "I guess...I really mean a lot to you, huh?" he said.

Hinata blushed slightly. This was awkward, like she had to confess all over again. "Well, yeah. I love you, Naruto. I have for a long time, and I always will."

Naruto took in this and the look in Hinata's eyes. She was blushing a bit, but he could tell she meant every word. Sighing, he fidgeted with his fingers. "I'm...not even sure I know what love really is," he said.

Hinata giggled at this, remembering Sakura once telling her that Naruto likely didn't know the difference between the love for ramen and real romantic love. Naruto raised an eyebrow, not sure why she was laughing. "I've taught you what love is before, Naruto," Hinata said with another small giggle. "I think I can manage it again."

Naruto smiled slightly at this. Then he raised a questioning eyebrow of his own. "You...have?" he asked. Hinata just smiled back. Then Naruto had a thought. "Where are Boruto and Himawari?"

Hinata smiled. That was the Naruto she knew, in a way: always thinking of others. His voice had been both concerned and curious. She responded, "Himawari is in class, and Boruto had a mission today. She will be back in an hour or so, but Boruto will likely be gone for about a week."

Naruto took that one in, then said, "I guess that's for the best. At least I won't have to get used to both of them at once."

Hinata giggled. "Boruto can be a bit of a handful," she said. "And while Himawari takes being cute to dangerous levels, she can be deadly if she wants to, too." Naruto looked at her, unsure of this. Hinata told him about how Himawari had knocked both Naruto _and_ Kurama out in a single move when Himawari was only _three,_ which left Naruto with a newfound respect for his evident daughter.

"From what you've said," Naruto began, "it sounds like Boruto is just like me when I was his age. Or...rather, how I was when I was his age, more or less." Naruto chuckled at himself. "It still feels weird to not _be_ twelve."

Hinata giggled. "Oh, trust me, sometimes I can't believe we're not twelve anymore, either," she said. Naruto smiled at her gratefully. She continued, "It all just...feels like a dream sometimes."

Naruto took a deep breath. He was nervous for reasons he couldn't even begin to figure out. "Is it...a good dream?" he asked.

Hinata slid closer and hugged Naruto. "It's the best dream in the world," she said back, then kissed Naruto's cheek softly. Naruto stiffened, his face turned as red as a beet, and Hinata would have sworn she could see smoke coming from Naruto's ears. With a mischievous smile on her face, Hinata leaned in close, rested a hand on her husband's forehead, and said, "You're awfully red, Naruto. Do you have a fever?"

Naruto, completely unused to being touched by anyone, especially not a girl who – despite his best efforts – he couldn't deny was a total knockout, felt his heart rate shoot skyward, developed a slight nosebleed, and fainted dead away.

Hinata dissolved into giggles. "Why is that so freaking adorable?" she asked no one in particular.

A/N: And there we go. A second chapter of this one already. Hope you guys enjoyed it, and come on back next time to see how Naruto deals with Himawari. Also, Happy Valentine's Day!


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